Fictitious Commodities. Rediscovering Polanyi For The 21st Century

Everyone is aware that the market, as a mechanism for the distribution of resources, has affected several areas of our society. From its influence on how we care for children and elderly people to the fields of education and health, there is a general sense that the expansion of the market is difficult to stop. This situation was already predicted in the middle of the last century by Karl Polanyi who warned of the social consequences of this increasing commodification. We will be looking over his work in the course of this booklet, in order to help us understand how far our lives have been affected by the commodification of goods such as work, housing and money itself.